I’ve been through recessions, inflations, stagflations and other crazy gyrations. When these hit, it’s the economic equivalent of a storm. Sometimes mild, sometimes not. If you know people in hurricane alley, some people get hurt, and a few miles away others aren’t. The economy is that way. But this one is beating up on a lot of people already, and it’s far from over.

A knee-jerk reaction of the unseasoned businessperson is to cut out all the marketing as a first defensive action to “save money.” This ostrich-like reaction of sticking your head in the sand unfortunately leaves your rear-end exposed to the storm – not a good idea! In fact, you’re almost sure to lose your feathers and maybe even your posterior.

If you know people doing this, or worse, if you’ve done this, this article is for you. And I highly recommend that you not only read it, but that you start doing some of these things with the vigor you would act with if you were putting up your hurricane shutters in 80 mph winds.

Have You Used 150 Marketing Methods?

I’ve been fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to have had clients who tried almost every whacky advertising method you can imagine. I’m part of the direct response school of marketing in which we carefully track results of everything we do. Because of this, I’ve pulled together a lot of information that could improve your marketing and lower your costs. I would like to share some of these with you here.

Of course different kinds of businesses have different methods of marketing that work best for them. I’ve seen over 150 different methods tried, of which less than half ever made money for anybody so far as I could determine. And only a handful have good potential for most businesses.

Let me give you some ideas that apply very broadly, some ideas that you cost you almost nothing that you will be able to use to improve your business – even in a lousy economy.

What’s #1- Out of Over 150 Marketing Methods?

The #1 method of getting low-cost, high-quality business is word-of-mouth. I’ve surveyed over 1,000 professionals and owners of small businesses at seminars I’ve conducted in Los Angeles and around the US and I can tell you this is your least expensive way to get business. The problem? How to get enough of it.

This can be turbocharged by launching a referral program.What’s the best way to do that?

It takes some time to explain, which is why I’ve written it all up. I’ve prepared an eBooklet that takes this Power Referral Program chapter from my upcoming marketing book. In that chapter I go into detail on the proven program of exactly how to do this trick. Do you want a referral program that produces between 5% and 10% response rate when done “by the book?” If you know anything about marketing you know that promoting to 10 people and getting one new customer or client or patient is almost unheard of.

OK, Guys, I think it’s time for some comic relief.  I really hope you enjoy these as much as I did.    I have no idea where this came from . . . but feel free to send it somewhere else. 

Investment tips for 2008:  With all the turmoil in the market today and the collapse of AIG, Lehman Bros and Acquisition of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America this might be some good advice.  

For all of you with any money left, be aware of the next expected mergers so that you can get in on the ground floor and make some BIG bucks.   Watch for these consolidations later this year: 

1.  Hale Business Systems, Mary Kay Cosmetics, fuller Brush and W. R. Grace Co.  Will merge and become:  
     Hale, Mary, Fuller, Grace. 
 Ritz Crackers join forces and become: 
      Poly, Warner Cracker.              

It has to do with blasting through limits and fixed concepts, and oh yes, having someone in your court, someone watching your back, and someone who isn’t staring at the same things you are who can give you some space to think thoughts through. 

It also has to do with setting your sites on something better and sticking to your plans, all of which can be tricky when there is constant dispersal and distraction.  This is the dual solution of the mentor and the mastermind group and what it means to benefit from being part of a team. 

A mentor is a teammate.  A professional with a mentor, no matter how able the professional might be, is immediately on a team the minute that he finds a mentor.  And the best mentors (including David Sanders) subscribe to Napoleon Hill’s “mastermind” approach.  In fact, it is possible that these two things are more responsible than the universities from coast to coast for powering ultimate success for the entrepreneurial business venturer. 

Why is it so important to have a mentor and hook up with a mastermind group?  Well, it is the launching pad for rocket expansion for one thing.  For those who are content to plod and procrastinate, it’s probably not going to appeal.  But for anyone who has envisioned his goals and is intent on achieving them, these are your best weapons against distraction and dispersal that can utterly wipe out your gains. 

Of course, you have to plan this out and select carefully if you are going to trust in someone to be your guide (another way to look at a mentor).  In the case of David Sanders at Creative Business Strategies, he has a bag of tricks which are each and every one based on scientificially proven fundamentals of business, that takes even the most reluctant manager and marketer and puts him or her at the top of their game.   

As I mentioned, the webinar David did today was for financial planners.  You might be curious as to why David has zeroed in on this profession so strongly.  It bears mentioning, because there are literally 100,000s of financial planners who are able to direct us into patterns of good investment, which makes it sadly obvious that not enough people have been getting good financial planning advice. 

Back to my point about mentors and masterminds.  There are very real reasons that people are not able to get their engines really revved up so that they power through the barriers that they run into.  One of the most easily fixed of those reasons is to just stop trying to go it alone.  Get yourself on a team that thinks like you do and believes in what you believe in.  Even if you are on the company board with other people, you are faced with opposition in most cases.  What you need is agreement that what you want to do is good and laudable and should be done, even if it takes more work.  What you need is someone who can broaden the scope of what tools you have at your disposal.  When you get the right mentor and find a likeminded mastermind group where all the folk in it are working on the same page, fast progress is inevitable.  Life can get an awful lot more fun when you find you are at the controls of your destiny. 

Check out the Chamber site: Chatsworth Chamber. “This was a really live ’can-do’ sort of group,” says Sanders.   He challenged them all to take his advice to heart and clear their slates.  He’ll be meeting with Lucie Volotsky later this week, because she was the lucky gal who won the raffle for a business analysis of her company, Beds Unlimited. 

If anyone out there wants to make their next Chamber (or other group) luncheon fulfilling as well as filling, I highly recommend including one of David’s Creative Business Strategies (CBS) seminars. 

Oh, if you check out www.szone.us, there are more photos of the luncheon. 

Tip:  Get to know these Chatsworth folks.  they are on the move, as Steve at the Szone says ”We’re building an empire,” and CBS is happy to help them on their way.            

He turned things around for his business and maybe you can, too.

How Did He Beat It?

David attended the Marketing Strategies that Work Seminar presented by Creative Business Strategies (CBS) at the Bell Gardens Chamber of Commerce and left with a positive point of view and techniques he felt would work.

David realized that there was a vital missing factor. His failing marketing proved that despite his many years in the business, he didn’t really know what his customers wanted or thought! Operating on assumptions instead of facts had wasted a lot of money, something he could no longer afford to do.

How do you find out what your customers want? Ask them, of course!

It sounds so simple, but David discovered that a lot of skill is needed to interview the public, do quality surveys and obtain useful answers – not just a “yes” or “no”…or a “no answer” which is what his staff came up with in their initial attempts at surveying.

CBS researched to find out all about the company, the competition, demographics of the customers and area, etc. Then we sent in one of our highly-skilled survey teams, fully trained in communication skills as well as bi-lingual, and we conducted a series of surveys on his public. We studied several potential avenues of promotion, advertising, public relations and Internet marketing. After the tabulation and analysis, the results showed exactly what this target market or “public” wanted.

Talk About a Surprise!

Surveys revealed that only about 10% of his customers liked the name he had been using for his stores in all his marketing and even the signs that hung on each store! Almost everyone preferred “Auto Supply Company” to “ASC”. So his logo, promo and signage had been going in a completely wrong direction!

Based on this discovery, CBS had several new logos created for Auto Supply Company and surveyed those to find the one his customers like best that really represented to them what they like best about the company.

He then started changing his promotion. Lynda Hubbard, CBS VP Marketing, wrote several marketing pieces for him, and his sales promptly increased and have continued to increase ever since. He is now a happy camper. Working with CBS he got surveys done on his customers and he found out the things he needed to know.

When asked what he learned from this process, David enthusiastically replies “Survey, Survey, Survey!”. To hear his full testimonial (approx. 2 minutes), go to YouTube under Creative Business Strategies.

Can You Afford NOT to Improve Your Marketing – for Free?

Using the most cutting-edge marketing technology, CBS first analyzes what is going on in your marketing with a 36-point questionnaire. This in-depth Marketing Analysis is being offered at no-charge for the first 10 business owners requesting it.

As in David Scher’s case, the Marketing Analysis may show a need for in-depth surveys to ASK the people you want to buy your products or services what they think and want. It is easy for our experts to discover the trouble areas in marketing and then create a plan to handle it if we have accurate, precise information – straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak. And we have a low-cost special on our famed Marketing Booster for which you may qualify.

The technology we use helps us discover what your customers want, need and would demand (or value). Our unique approach also elicits their emotional responses and how they think. It is this technology and our precise tabulation and analysis that sets CBS apart. From accurate information we can create an accurate marketing strategy and campaign. And that adds up to profits for our clients!

CALL 818-952-8881 NOW (or email us) and get your Free Marketing Analysis today!

This was not the main intent of the article, however. He was most interested in pointing out that neither presidential candidates, Senators Obama or McCain, nor former contender for the Democratic nomination, Senator Clinton, have offered any concrete ideas as to how they hope to address the actual economic situation that the United States is facing. He went into some detail in regards to each of the three and what he feels is their actual lack of understanding of the current economic situation.

For the record, and because it is nice to know from an expert why we are in the mess we are in, I think you should know who the culprit is according to Mr. Truax. He says: “This is largely due to the disincentives to production and work which are imbedded in a punitive tax system, an over-regulatory government, a court system too ready to award ‘damages” to unworthy victims, and a populace willing to trade freedom for promises of security. “ This is quite an indictment, to say the least.

However, as I stated at the beginning, my focus is not to debate the causes of the situation. My interest is in a solution to that problem that Mr. Truax provided. This particular solution can be implemented on the floor of every plant, in our schools, and at our job sites and offices. Furthermore, here at Creative Business Strategies, we are in the happy position of being specialists in helping companies to implement this very solution.

The solution is to increase productivity across the boards.

Another way to say this would be that Americans need to work harder. Now, this does need some clarification, because of course, the point is not that work should become more arduous. The point is that work done needs to be more productive. That means that time needs to be more effectively invested. These things are covered in a subject called Productivity and Time Management. When the principals of productivity and time management are operated on, not only does the company benefit with higher profits, the workers benefit as well.

For more than three decades, David Sanders and his top consultant at Creative Business Strategies have been bolstering the productivity of a wide variety of enterprises from private practices and small businesses to high tech, from manufacturers to schools. With more profit realized, it is possible to hire more personnel and pay bonuses. When productivity is the benchmark of a company, the people who work there benefit from increased morale and the pride of getting things done. It is a process well worth looking into, and to think, as Mr. Truax points out, it is the American thing to do.

Admittedly, increasing production across the boards is not a total solution, and certainly it would not play well as a political platform. But when you realize that the results of doing so include increased team work, increased responsibility, less breakage, fewer sick days, which always follows higher morale in a company, and the dozens and dozens of wasted work hours that can be recovered by increasing efficiency, it makes sense that this is one very workable route to keeping more people on the pay rosters.

Here is what Mr. Truax has to say about the importance of simply increasing productivity: “The people of America still have enough latent vitality to overcome the issues which face them, enough to bring prosperity, stability, and freedom, if only the artificial barriers to that vitality could be removed.” To see the whole article, go to http://www.truax.net/newsletter.html.

Once production is up, we can start working on some of the artificial barriers he has pointed to as the problem as well. But the key is increasing productivity and getting our time management under control. Whether it’s politically correct or not, It’s the American thing to do.

I hope these help.

1. As soon as you notice sales dropping, your first thought should be to crank up your marketing.
2. Failing to track which marketing works can easily 3x your costs and give inferior results.
3. A tough economy opens the door to big shifts in market share – become a power marketer and increase your piece of the pie.
4. If you don’t know before you go, you probably won’t know after you’ve gone either. It pays to survey.
5. Slashing your marketing and putting your head in the sand is the route to extinction when one of your competitors doesn’t follow suit.
6. Image advertising is the lazy man’s way to poverty.
7. The Direct Response school of marketing is the most challenging and rewarding.
8. The Internet is here to stay. Learn how to market there.
9. It only costs a little more to go first class.
10. Less than 10% of marketing methods work consistently – learn what works and specialize in that.

David C. Sanders
CEO, Creative Business Strategies, Inc.

Since then, popular speaker, author and CEO of CBS, David Sanders, has presented the “Make It Great in 2008” as well as “Marketing Strategies That Work” seminars for Chambers of Commerce spanning from deep in the San Gabriel Valley to the northern end of the Long Beach Harbor Corridor. Sanders and his team of trained consultants are committed to bringing highly workable strategies to local businesses. He is a former Marketing Director of a top Beverly Hills ad agency. He has consulted in more than 300 professions and industries.

“My purpose in doing these seminars is to help business owners achieve their goals, despite today’s uncertain economy,” says Sanders. “CBS is dedicated to backing up LA County’s key business organizations in accomplishing their mandate to foster business growth in their communities in 2008, regardless of what the rest of the economy is doing. We all believe something can be done about it.”

Other seminars offered by CBS to Chambers and other business organizations include “How to Get & Keep Good Employees” “More Profits, Less Stress” and “Achieving Your Goals.” For more information on “Make It Great in 2008” and other seminars featuring David Sanders, visit www.creativestrats.com.

She discovered at the end of last year that she had been less than $500 away from a benchmark that would have earned her a hefty bonus, and what is worse, she had the sales where made to meet the quota – but did not turn in the paperwork in time. Her disorganization had cost her a lot!

The Production and Time Management Program, by CBS, is a short but highly effective procedure that gets any executive or any staff person fully on top of their work load. In this case, the consultant also created customized spreadsheets and showed her how to use them so she could easily monitor her now streamlined sales pipeline. With its implementation, Dianne knows every step of every sales cycle and can track it until it is finalized and all the paper is in order. She does not randomly pick what she will work on. She can tell where her next sale should come from, and the next. She systematically moves each cycle through the pipeline. Even if it snags, she can see what is needed and fix it. In short, she has become a manager of her production line.

After working with the consultant, a pleasant surprise greeted her when she returned from her week-long vacation. “Even after being gone for a week, I walked into my office and I knew exactly where to start with my papers. I still knew what I needed to do and there was no confusion about it. A month ago, I would not have even believed that this was possible!”

Last heard from our broker she had moved up from #12 to #4 in her company’s sales rankings. She says she intends to be #1 and surpass the lead broker, who was selling five times what Dianne was selling before. “I am up for the challenge, and thanks to Creative Business Strategies, I’m doing it!”